Orchestra returns to tell a story

Apr 25 2008 by Michael Green, Chester Chronicle

THE Chester Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Chester Cathedral on Saturday, April 26 for an evening contrasting British music with Russian story telling.

As one of the North West’s premier non-professional orchestras, the Chester Philharmonic promises an evening of delight.

The concert starts with Vaughan Williams’ The Wasps – Aristophanic Suite. Composed in 1909, this piece was written for a Cambridge University production of the comic satire The Wasps by Aristophanes. Four Scottish Dances by Malcolm Arnold follows. It is one of many sets of dances he composed themed around British identities, from English, Welsh and Cornish.

To close, listeners will be treated to Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Symphonic Suite Scheherazade Op 53. Scheherazade is a fantasy about the Arabian Nights in luscious, swirling sound that treats your ears, your emotions and your imagination.

Jonathan Martindale, who is studying for his performing diploma at the RNCM, is the orchestra’s guest leader for the evening and will be playing the solo violin which depicts Scheherazade.

Full details of this concert and the rest of the orchestra’s season at Chester Cathedral are on the orchestra’s web site, www.chesterphilorchestra.co.uk

Tickets are available from the box office, 0151 632 1633, via e-mail: boxoffice@chesterphilorchestra.co.uk, and at the door.

Reserved seats: £12 (concessions £10), unreserved seats: £8 and £6, school children: £3